Guest Comments by Isabel Escoda

Escoda, a journalist and author living in Hong Kong, comes originally from the Philippines.

Reports from Burma indicate that democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has gone on trial after being transferred to Rangoon’s infamous Insein prison. This confirms what I thought after reading about an American who swam across a lake and “sneaked” into her house recently.

Obviously, the junta will make life even more difficult for this brave Burmese leader, especially now that she is reportedly very ill. How much more of the junta’s uncivilized behavior will the leaders of ASEAN, the United States and Europe tolerate? Ineffectual sanctions and past demands for Suu Kyi’s release have been for naught. Half-hearted protestations aimed at China for propping up Burma’s vile regime naturally produce nothing.

The murky situation involving the American swimmer, identified as John Yettaw, brings two scenarios to mind. Maybe he’s someone who, knowing that his country refuses to do more to help free Suu Kyi, wanted to show that people like himself, as many others around the world, care strongly for her and all she represents. The other scenario is that he was “put up” by the junta to incriminate her and accuse her of conspiring with foreign powers.

The free world must not stand by and watch as Burma’s military leaders make that nation’s nightmare even worse by continuing to persecute the brave lady rightly known as Asia’s Nelson Mandela.

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